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Another year down, another year filled with great tunes. Below is a list (in alphabetical order) of 50 albums I dug in 2016. Normally I shy away from naming my top album because quite frankly I think there is too much great music that gets released throughout the year but this year is different because to me, A Tribe Called Quest didn’t just shock everyone by announcing and releasing its first album in 18 years, coupled with the loss earlier this year of Phife Dawg but it was the perfect album at the right time when “We The People” needed it. We Got It From Here…Thank You For Your Service is the album of the year and if you haven’t for some reason, dive into it, listen closely. We need more like ATCQ in 2017 and the years to come, there is a purpose to this album, find yours as I found mine. Peace + Love + Music. See you in 2017.

Late Monday night Coachella dropped its 2016 lineup. With Guns n’ Roses and LCD Soundsystem as headliners (and both reuniting) leaked early on, the anticipation was only building for the remainder of the lineup. My hats off to the Goldenvoice team for putting together yet another massive lineup for music fans to salivate at. This year is clearly very dance heavy (as expected) and obviously there is going to be more electro(nic) incorporated into the Coachella Stage and Outdoor Theater stage. Also with Calvin Harris drawing the largest crowd in Coachella Stage history in 2014 it’s no surprise to see him headlining as well this year. I’ll get to may favorite small line artists below but I think the most interesting part of the lineup is at the bottom which states “DESPACIO All Weekend Long;” and should get every LCD Soundsystem (and music) fan excited because if you aren’t familiar, DESPACIO is a side project of James Murphy and 2manydjs! It’s so rad, see for yourself, HERE.

The top line artists speak for themselves but let’s get into the fun stuff, discovery. Here are my quick hits to the artists you may not know but should by April. If I had to name just one of the below for your to really get lost in, Gallant. Oh baby!

Hellooooooo Vegas! Run The Jewels = if you’ve never seen Killer Mike and El-P live, you’re missing out. Good thing we’re going to fix that for you on Sunday, September 27 at 7:55pm on the Ambassador Stage at Life is Beautiful. The duo just appeared last night on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, last weekend performed in the UK at Banksy’s Dismaland Bemusement Park (p.s. Banksy is coming to the festival!) and for the last two years have been simply, on fire!

To give you a taste of what to expect, here’s their performance from Bonnaroo this past summer.

Party People! If you haven’t already, you better move quick and snatch up your tickets to attend Life is Beautiful 2015, September 25-27 in Downtown Las Vegas. The single day lineups have dropped and while single day tickets go on sale Thursday, look at the below and I can’t find a way for you not to want to attend all three days!

Need a little more inspiration? Click HERE to listen to the Life is Beautiful 2015 Radio Station on Pandora.

I’m very happy and proud to share with you the 2015 Life is Beautiful Festival lineup! We released the lineup earlier this week and the feedback has been tremendous. I truly hope you like this year’s collection and find both artists you love and artists to discover. While putting together the lineup I usually go a bit silent on DoYouHearTheMusic.com but now I’m ready to unleash a fury of new music for your ears, get some posts up of some of the baby bands on the Life is Beautiful lineup and a whole bunch of other fun things!

Tickets to Life is Beautiful are on sale now! I hope ou pick up a pair and make plans to head to Downtown Las Vegas for what is going to be an amazing weekend of peace, love and music!

Words from SPIN.com HERE but click below to watch the new music video for Run The Jewels’ “Close Your Eyes (And Count To Fuck) ft. Zack de la Rocha directed by A.G. Rojas which depicts a fight between a cop and an unarmed black man.

For the past three years I have been fortunate enough to attend SXSW. It’s kind of like summer camp when you think about it. In many cases (and mine) you are staying with friends, sometimes too many for the apartment you are in, you see people you haven’t seen in a year and you run around like kids going to see the next big thing, an artist you’ve been dying to see and bands/musicians who are playing massive underplays. All in, SXSW is what you make of it and this past year was no exception. Of course I didn’t get to see everyone I had hoped to but I did have a handful of new discoveries and a grip of new memories to carry with me.
In five days I logged 63 miles on my feet traversing the city and it was worth every step.

Who I saw:

Monday: The Vaccines, Ryan Hemsworth, Run The Jewels, Kaleo, Cathedrals, Spoon and Portugal. The Man

There were hands down an overabundance of great performances but for me the best shows of the week were Leon Bridges, The Delta Riggs, The War On Drugs and Future Islands.

Yes I saw Run The Jewels where the fight broke out. The show was packed with energy and too much fn besides that brief interruption.

Seeing Frank Turner acoustic on the back patio of Red7 with maybe 100 people was a true treat.

Wyclef as always delivered a fun and crowd participation show well worth the wait.

Skylar Spence (FKA Saint Pepsi) is putting together a band for this summer’s festival season so be on the lookout for that!

If you have a chance to see the California Honeydrops, do it!Robert DeLong keeps getting better and better.

San Fermin, my how much this band has grown in a year. Sounding excellent.

I became a fan of Sam Hunt.

Kaleo sound nothing like you’d expect and that’s a good thing.

Spoon was ripping through shows all week and sounded great as expected but I can’t wait for Britt Daniel to go back out as Divine Fits.

Jack Ladder, seek them out this year.

Despite saying it was their last song, anyone who stayed for The War On Drugs show at YouTube was treated to 30 more minutes of rip roaring jamming and it was flat out crushing!

I’d been dying to see George Maple and she lived up to it. Her new track with What So Not, fire!

And again, LEON BRIDGES. I sincerely hope you all start listening to this soulful human being who is going to make his mark this year. If you’re lucky enough to catch Leon and St. Paul and The Broken Bones at the same festival (Outside Lands) these two are quickly ascending to a level of fame that I hope makes them the stars of tomorrow.

What a year it was for me in music. So good that I don’t want this year to end but excited to see what 2015 has in store. Below (in alphabetical order) are albums I was digging in 2014. I couldn’t limit myself to a number and I know I missed some too but here it is. What were some of yours from 2014?

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